Ghost Funk Orchestra is the groovy sonic world built by composer and multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum. What started as a solo recording project has evolved into a genre-blurring, groove-driven collective that fuses elements of psychedelic soul, jazz, and funk with a cinematic edge. With a rotating lineup of top-tier musicians, the group has roots in New York City’s live music scene, performing everywhere from DIY venues to iconic spaces like Bryant Park.

But the NYC music scene can be unpredictable. When Brooklyn Made abruptly closed, Ghost Funk Orchestra’s show was left without a home – until Alphaville stepped in at the last minute to save the night. Despite the shake-up, the band delivered a high-energy Saturday night set, packing the room with their signature grooves and keeping the crowd moving like nothing had changed. The last-minute switch only added to the spontaneity, proving that no matter the venue, Ghost Funk Orchestra knows how to bring the party.

We caught up with Seth Applebaum ahead of his Alphaville show with Ghost Funk Orchestra to talk about the band’s evolution, their dynamic live performances, and what’s next—including a new album and a European tour.

Are you originally from New York?
I was born and raised in New Jersey, and I started the band when I was living down in Brooklyn. I’m now upstate a little bit, but our home base is the city.

You’ve played at all kinds of venues around New York, right?
Yeah we’ve played a lot of them. Still have not played the biggest ones, but we’ve been doing it since 2017.

There's been a rotating cast of characters within the group. How did you first get started?
I moved to the city in 2011 and some of my friends and I started playing in a little three piece punk band and we were playing a lot of the DIY spots that were around in the 2010s and touring a decent bit. But I've always gravitated towards soul music and funk and jazz and things adjacent to that as far as my listening habits go, so it was inevitable that I was going to put together a project at some point that was exploring that a bit more. It was like six years of doing the punk band for me to get my playing confidence up and my chops and get my boat legs, and that's when I started putting together Ghost Funk. I was just pulling people from the other punk bands that we used to play with and the people that I had had a lot of side conversations with, and they were all expressing interest in the groovy side of music. Over time it's been a rotating cast, partly because of life changes, but also availability. The stars don't always align. Not everyone’s available at the same time so I built a bit of a roster so we could take the shows I wanted to take.

Do you have anything you want the audience to take from your music, or experience you’re hoping they will get out of a live show?
We try to build a set list that has a bit of an arc to it. We have a lot of songs in the live set that, for lack of a better word, I'd just call party tunes. Songs where maybe the horns are soloing and they’re upbeat. Good songs to dance to. But then we also try to work in some slower songs to make it dynamic. It ebbs and flows. I guess we want it to be arresting in a way. Kind of take you for a bit of a ride. Part of it is, I was coming from a band where every song was full throttle, so it's kind of nice to build in those moments where you can dial it back and then go back to full throttle. We try to find moments to create tension. Just make it as three dimensional as we can.

Do you see the band staying on the same trajectory musically? Coming from punk and then moving into this soul funk space, do you see that continuing to evolve, or are you in a groove right now?
It's always evolving, especially on the recording side of things. I think a lot of the tangible evolution is just us changing up the way the songs are presented live. With rare exceptions, the recordings always come before the live show, so there's always some kind of preconception of what a song sounds like on the recording before we’ve even tried them out live, so through touring and trial and error, we find these new ways to represent the songs live. Sometimes they end up being totally different beasts than the studio versions, but I kind of like doing it that way because it gives both sides their own reason to exist. They’re not just carbon copies of each other.

I was definitely nervous about that at first, especially because people have had time to get used to the record. So I was worried that when they came to hear it live, if they didn't hear it how it's represented on the record that maybe they would be bummed about it, but honestly that just gives us extra drive to really make them unique live. Yeah, you can listen to the record and enjoy the studio quality of it and the weird sounds that can't be reproduced live, but then the live show is more in your face. It’s like the bones of the songs but take it to a different place.

What is your dream venue to perform at?
I will say, and I think I've put this out to the universe before, but my personal bucket list venue for New York City is Prospect Park Bandshell, the Celebrate Brooklyn festival. I have a history as a concert goer with that show series. I went to some very formative concerts at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, so playing the Bandshell during the summertime is definitely on the bucket list. I have more drive to do that than even Madison Square Garden or something like that. Just because of the vibe of it. Summertime Brooklyn, outside concert is just unbeatable I think, so I really want us to be able to do that.

The vibe of those concerts was very on my mind when I was writing these songs in the first place. Kind of hard to explain how or why, but just the hot summer in the city and that general sort of discomfort about it. There’s a sort of beautiful discomfort about existing in the city when it's sweltering hot, but it definitely informed the music when I was first putting it together, which is why I've always envisioned us doing it live outdoors. We got to play Bryant Park once, which was very cool. Similar, a little different, a little more sprawling in a way. It was definitely a unique experience because I don't know a ton of bands that get to do that. It was part of this little festival they do every year for up and coming bands and the view from the stage was pretty unbeatable. Being surrounded by buildings like that. It was very iconic in a way.

What is the origin of the band name, Ghost Funk Orchestra
There’s definitely a piece of it that was formed from Unknown Mortal Orchestra. That’s Ruban Nieson’s band, and I remember reading an interview where he had the idea. Similarly, it’s like a solo project that was built out into a live show, which is what Ghost Funk is as well. He had made this semi calculated decision to put the word “Orchestra” on the name so that it seems more valid to take it seriously. I can't say that that's what was in my head exactly. It wasn’t the reason why I did it, but there was definitely some influence. It might have been as simple as, I was trying to upload things to Bandcamp and trying to come up with a genre tag, and ghost funk was the genre that made sense in my head. The songs I was making. Because it's never been like straight up James Brown funk. It's never been straight up soul. It's just kind of dancing between all of these genres. Especially in the beginning it was very informed by the kind of guitar playing I was doing in the punk bands. So I just kind of cooked up my own little genre tag. 

It's funny because we've been told by people that our name has been a huge asset to us on festival bills because people that are trying to schedule their day, they'll see our name, and because we basically just spell out what it is in the name, they can take a calculated risk on going to see us, especially if they have no idea what we actually do. But the fact that our name is essentially our genre was unknowingly the best move we made in a way.

Especially now with concerts and festivals being as pricey as they are, I think it helps that we have some kind of extra hook for people who are trying to budget their time and make sure they're picking up acts that they want to see. It was something that I didn't have any big vision for, but it ended up working out in ways I couldn't have known.

What’s next for you? Do you have any side projects you’re working on?

I’m working on a new record right now. I'll have to pause work because we’re about to go do a Europe tour for the first time. I have a little side project with a friend of mine named Maria Lina from Maria Lina and the Machetes. It's essentially like Ghost Funk but with her leading it and it's a little edgier. So we have some songs kicking around for that that we’re working on this year. I guess the biggest thing is just the shows and the new record, which will probably be done later this year, maybe coming out next year. We've put out enough stuff that I feel comfortable taking my time with this one.

With Brooklyn Made closing, your show in Brooklyn had a last minute venue change to Alphaville. How did you end up there

Could have definitely done without all the chaos but thankfully our friends at Alphaville swooped in to save the day. It was nuts. If the shows gonna happen anywhere, I'm glad it's there. I hate that we’ve had to do this twice now, but we had a show last year or two years ago, where we were opening a few shows for Grace Potter. We were supposed to play with her at Pier 17, which is another outdoor bucket list venue that we almost achieved. But it was like monsoon up on the roof, so they had to scrap the opener slot. We ended up last minute getting to move our set over to Our Wicked Lady. So this will be the second time that a small venue run by our friends has helped us out. We're grateful for that. We want to play. We’re ready to go, so however we can make it work.

Connect with Ghost Funk Orchestra on Instagram, Spotify, and their website.